Seattle: 1900-1920 -From Boomtown, Through Urban Turbulence ...

IntroductionCedar River Taste. During an 1899 visit to the Cedar Rivertwo unidentified members of the Seattle City Councilshow their appreciation for the taste of the water thatwould soon replace Lake Washington as the primarysource of drinking water for the community.The public ownership movementgrew out of the City of Seattle’s attempts tocontrol its water supply in the mid-1890s.Once it acquired that control, the city alsobegan to generate hydroelectric power atthe Cedar River reservoir, putting it in competition with the Seattle Electric Company ofthe Stone and Webster Management Corporation. The stage was hereby set for a titanicpolitical conflict running throughout the period from 1900 to 1940. The public powermovement was statewide, involving the two municipally owned systems of Tacoma andSeattle as well as the Washington State Grange, all of which were united against the state’sprivate power companies. The movement climaxed in 1930, when voters approved Initiative1, which authorized the creation of public utility districts. But this merely expanded theconflict, extending it to the Columbia River basin and necessitating the involvement of thefederal government.Public ownership was the single issue around which reformers gathered duringthe first two decades of the century; it brought together organized labor, the WashingtonFederation of Women’s Clubs, the Ministerial Federation (forerunner of the Council ofChurches), and the Municipal League—all, including organized labor, staunchly middleclass. This constituency was held together by its dedication to public power. The issue ofpublic power became morally charged in a way that vice and police corruption—whichproved to have an ephemeral constituency—did not.Central to industrial relations was the contest between employers, who pressed forthe open shop, and labor unions, which wanted the closed shop. In the open shop, employersbargained with employees individually; in the closed shop, employers bargained with theunions, which acted on behalf of the employees. Employers emerged victorious from the1919 General Strike, sustaining their version of the open shop, known nationwide as theAmerican Plan, until 1934. Under federal protection, the union movement revived in 1934,and organized labor once again became politically active, forming a coalition with otheraggrieved groups to constitute New Deal liberalism.The Seattle public school system and the University of Washington were funded bythe state through an inherently political process. Both depended upon state tax revenues forfunding; the public schools were financed by local property taxes as well. During the firsttwo decades of the century, Seattle’s schools were relatively well funded because the city’supwardly mobile middle class enthusiastically supported the forward-looking educationalpolicies of the superintendent, Frank B. Cooper. However, he and his successors had todeal with a successful tax revolt in 1921 led by leaders of the business community, justas fresh demands were being placed on the school system to adapt to rapid technologicalchanges in business and mass production. Passage of the forty-mill limitation on propertytaxes in 1932, combined with the effects of the Great Depression, further complicatedpublic school funding. The University of Washington was also affected.